Tag: wall

Sadly, there’s a new (not so new) form of privilege in town, and no, it’s not white privilege. Much worse, it’s conservative Evangelical privilege, and it’s perhaps the most vile privilege of all.

Like a pubescent child spoiled from birth, it whines and moans with temper tantrums flailing against anything that threatens its self-centered world of specialized treatment and assumed authority and power. The Light that reveals the divine equality spun into all creation, and God’s special affection for the misfit and the marginalized, triggers its greatest meltdown. Deaf to the suffering and struggles of any soul that is different, their moated religious castles with crosses on top erode any capacity for true compassion, empathy, and enlightened perspective. For there is nothing more evil than a Christian who thinks Jesus is for them and against all others.

I’m so sorry you’re being taken to task on the appropriateness of prayer in public schools, displaying the ten commandments in the public square, and denying rights and dignity to people who believe, value, and were created differently than you. I’m sorry people are jumping like rats off a sinking ship to leave your bigoted churches and institutions. I’m sorry you’re being challenged in the accuracy of your doctrine and the true heart of your faith understandings. I’m sorry your hypocrisy is being taken to task, along with your keen ability to create double standards that only benefit you, as if we can’t discern your sleight of hand and see through your religious gymnastics. I know, it’s so hard looking into the mirror and getting a taste of what it’s like to live downstream from your stench.

What was I thinking? It must be so tough being you.

It must be tough looking down your religious nose, condemning people who you deem to be sinning differently than you. It must be tough constantly needing an enemy to battle to justify the existence of your faith and give purpose to your self-righteous pursuits. It must be so difficult having to stomach all the stories of people who have become disillusioned and destroyed at the feet of your ideological callousness. It must be so inconvenient and bothersome to have to hear the voices of those you’ve oppressed, who in their desperation to be heard, speak in generalities, enraged tongues, and passionate protest. It must be so hard to live in a world where true religious and human equality is evermore emerging and you just can’t always have the sandbox to your greedy spoiled self.

Poor little conservative Evangelical, it must be so tough for you.

It must be so difficult to demonstrate a care and responsibility for the environment, the marginalized, and the least of these, instead of bulldozing your way through the world as you seek to commandeer it into your ideology. It must be so tough being called on the carpet for your Empire building and faith nationalization as you try to place your evil aspirations on the shoulders of Jesus who stands for none of it. It must be so awkward and weird to have the people you go on far way mission to save and rescue, actually show up at the doorstep of your country because they got this twisted idea, you might actually love them too.

It must be so tough to be so privileged.

To use the Bible as a weapon to explode your enemies. To decide who’s in and who’s out of hell and heaven. To force your way into all of society as you seek to hijack life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To sit in the comfort of your red velvet pews and judge the masses while you sing your songs of religious tribalism and spiritual orgasms. To admit you elected a child as the President, all because you fear the emergence of true equality and the dissolving of your white religious advantage. To spend your cash on building walls to protect your privileged white world of conservative Evangelicalism, even at the expense of human lives, basic ethics, and the Jesus whom you crucify once again.

It must be so tough to be so privileged.

Well, until I see you committing suicide at the hands of religious condemnation. Until I see your rights and humanity being stripped away and demonized beyond recognition. Until I see you lose your job, denied service, and beaten to death just because you breathe. Until I see you forced into compliance and lined up like sheep fit for slaughter–emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. Until I see you lynched on trees, housed in cages, and rationing your prescription medicines. Until I see you lying awake at night in excruciating fear for the life of your LGBTQIA teenager. Until I see you on the receiving end of a blatantly racist legal system. Until I see you condemned and sent to the curb through the rape and twisting of religious Scriptures. You can take all your whining and complaining and share it with someone who is actually listening. You can take your wall and make it into your own prison. You can take all your tone-policing and declarations I’m painting with too broad a brush and shove it. Because, it all sounds and smells like steaming fresh manure to me. Nothing less than your conservative Evangelical pretentious privilege.

No, don’t even take one step at complaining about the clarity, harshness, scope, or candor of my writing or that of any other until you send that conservative Evangelical privilege down the river.

For it all sounds and smells like crap to me.

In fact, with all due love and respect, you can take your conservative Evangelical privilege and everything that comes with it, and suck it.Grace is brave. Be brave.

There is no greater evil being wielded upon the planet than Conservative Evangelicalism, and Chris Kratzer’s life and ministry journey are undeniable proof. In Leatherbound Terrorism, Chris tells of his 21 years as a conservative Evangelical pastor and the radical change of heart and mind that led him to walk away from it all. With a new sense of faith centered on Jesus and His pure Gospel of Grace, in Leatherbound Terrorism, Chris chases the evils of conservative Evangelicalism out of the shadows and gives powerful voice to the cries of the religiously oppressed. Confronting issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, religious greed, hypocrisy, nationalism, white supremacy, privilege, and the weaponizing of the Bible, Leatherbound Terrorism pulls no punches. Endorsed by best selling authors Steve McVey and Baxter Kruger, Leatherbound Terrorism will challenge you, inspire you, and most certainly cause you to rethink your faith and life.